This post is the second in a serious of Final Solution Lost Theory posts. This post will make zero sense unless you read the first one. You can find it HERE.
ME: Are you COMPLETELY nuts! If you cross-connect their memories, you cross-connect their environments! They won’t know which end is up!
THEM: Well, yeah, that’s one of the reasons we created a waiting room and put a team in. Half the team is cross-connected, but only in brief time periods (we call them “flashes”), and they were supposed to be guided directly by two of our top guys.
ME: So they are all in a waiting room and then some of them are cross-connected in guided flashes. What, randomly?
THEM: Well, we’re not really sure. From what we can tell, the waiting room has manifested into a stable mosaic of small environments that form the illusion of a small island in the South Pacific. We do have some communication, but the entire system got away from us in a kind of autopilot mode. We can only observe.
ME: That’s not possible. It’s not an autonomous system. There is no autopilot.
THEM: Well, before we connect everyone, we tweaked a few things to give the patients more control over their environment and experiences. But we added overseers. Like guardian angels. Kinda.
ME: OMFG! You people are IDIOTS! Okay -- Uh -- any self-guided system still follows the given subroutine. What subroutine did you give it?
THEM: Um, one of the top guys we plugged in was one of the original scientists experimenting with the EMF island. He's been acting as a subroutine, a security system, but we can't control him.
ME: Can't control him?
THEM: He's acting on a protocol we didn't write and can't decipher. We've attempted contact, but he's not responding.
ME: What about the patients? Do you have any contact with them?
THEM: We have an information feed, usually with audio, with our team, and we do have some sound control to affect how they process incoming information. That's how we've been able to stabilize everyone's flashes. But, honestly speaking, now we’re not sure what’s going on in there.
ME: Oh my God --
THEM: We did come up with a plan.
ME: I can’t wait to hear how stupid it is.
THEM: Um, we created a completely distinct free-form, but strictly parameter-adherent environment, independent of and disconnected from all previous environments. Our plan was to transfer all the identities on the island to the new environment, eliminate any identity distortion and allow what we call the "New World," to work as the singular reality. However, the plan took a little longer than we thought to execute. We sent in a team, and a few follow-ups, but we lost direct contact.
ME: Just tell me the plan basics. And please hurry before I have a brain bleed all over your nice white coat.
THEM: The plan was to empty the waiting room by transferring everyone over a group at a time, but – The “New World” as we’re calling it was locked down the moment we put the team in. We couldn’t transfer anyone anywhere. They all just circle in the waiting room — the island -- and when they “die” they are stuck out of phase - on a different frequency. They become invisible and unable to interact with nearly everyone in the primary frequency.
ME: How did the new world get locked down?
THEM: We think someone else is manipulating the system.
ME: Someone else from the outside you mean?
THEM: We think so, yeah.
ME: Oh my God!
THEM: Yeah.
ME: What was the team's objective?
THEM: We chose specific minds with the ability to project their own stable environments within the given parameters [Group A] and matched them with a primary team [Group B].
ME: Hang on - You're saying Group A and Group B are both in the waiting room, but on different frequencies? Parallel frequencies?
THEM: Yes. The waiting room has two frequencies or two perceived realities, Group B is on the "island" while Group A is in the self-guided therapeutic environment. Group A mirrors Group B. We call it a flash.
ME: Okay STOP. What do you mean mirrors?
THEM: Each member of Group A is an identity reflection of a corresponding member of Group B.
ME: Clarify.
THEM: Both groups are intended to function realistically. Group B is on the "island." Group A is on a secondary frequency. The secondary frequency functions like a subconscious dream state tangent to the primary frequency.
ME: On the island.
THEM: Yes. Take Subjects 23 and 32. Subject 23B is on the island. Subject 32A is in the "flash" world. Two different identities. Two different minds.
ME: Yeah, I'm following.
THEM: They take the same form. They "use" the same body, the same name, the same baseline personal history --
ME: Which is all jumbled because you stupidly interconnected them --
THEM: Ahem -- yes.
ME: That makes NO sense! How can two different identities co-exist independently, in two separate frequency fields, two "realities," and still be connected?
THEM: First, we made one frequency a tangent of the other. The frequencies are still connected. We established distinct, realistic identities with certain, non-negotiable factors, such as appearance and a few background facts, that manifest in both worlds. In effect we stabilized the costume.
ME: It manifests simultaneously? In both frequencies at once? That's not possible.
THEM: No. Group B is working our plan on the island frequency of the waiting room. Group A is working our plan on the tangent frequency. When a subject in Group A is "activated," his corresponding subject (his mirror) in Group B is --
ME: Deactivated?
THEM: More like paused. The therapeutic environments were never intended for conscious access. They are supposed to remain on the subliminal level.
ME: Group B is not supposed to remember anything Group A is up to.
THEM: Only as a repressed memory. Since they were already interconnected, our intent was to let Group A create and stabilize an environment large enough to transfer everyone else in the waiting room, including Group C. Problem is, we lost access to the New World, so --
ME: Group A exists in a completely unpredictable environment.
THEM: Their progress is inconsistent and their interconnectivity creates identity, memory and logic confusion because the boundary between the environments is compromised.
ME: A NOW there are too many coincidences for Group A to stabilize anything, AND Group B believes whatever memories that leak over are actually past experiences. I repeat -- you guys are IDIOTS! Wait -- back up. Group C was the original intersect, the original group of interconnected minds you started with?
THEM: Yes.
ME: So where is Group C in all this chaos?
THEM: Um, we lost them.
ME: You LOST them? What do you mean you lost them?!
THEM: We can't find them.
ME: calmblueocean, calmblueocean, calmblueocean
THEM: Do you need some water or something?
ME: NO I do NOT need WATER or SOMETHING! I need to know how you LOST a connected group of minds within a closed system.
THEM: We're not sure. We think it might have been a power surge. Um, an electromagnetic power surge.
ME: So you're telling me you created this collective to observe how they interacted --
THEM: -- and how they created and developed in a dynamic, flexible, group environment.
ME: Oh, I'm coming back to that flexible part. I'm assuming you had two-way contact as well as some environmental control -- that wasn't a question -- You THINK there was an EMF malfunction, a surge in electromagnetism, after which you lost all contact or control of any kind.
THEM: Well, we know they're still alive and in the system, but that's all we know.
ME: So this is a rescue mission.
THEM: Yes.
ME: A FAILED rescue mission.
THEM: We've suffered setbacks. However, recently, for some reason, the New World opened up. We re-established contact with Group B and transferred most of Group A, but only into the exit room.
ME: What do you mean "most of Group A?"
THEM: Some of them "died." Group B's can't exist on the same frequency as Group A's. However, they are still in the waiting room. They are connected to the island. One of our team members is bi-frequency. Through him we were able to communicate with them. They helped us find a way to transmit Group C. They helped us find a door to wherever they are.
ME: Why can't you just open the door?
THEM: Uh, there's an unknown firewall.
ME: A what?
THEM: Someone is guarding the door.
ME: It's your subroutine isn't it? Your "security system."
THEM: We believe so. Ironically, it was originally designed to keep them from getting lost. It's been modified. We can't shut it down or reprogram it. We'll have to immobilize it before we can transfer Group C. The only way to immobilize it is to trap it or confine it. We sent in two team members specifically to do this. They're undercover, so to speak. One of them is our direct communications relay. She's had some technical difficulties, but she's online now. The other REALLY malfunctioned. He led the core team out of contact entirely, but fortunately disconnect from the feed weakened him, and his primary directive took over.
ME: What's his primary directive?
THEM: He's got something to do.
ME: That's it?! Could you be more vague?!
THEM: It was safer to send him in blank with a vague directive than risk losing control again. He'll be fed the specific task at the last possible moment. Like the proverbial lightbulb over his head. Hahahahah --- Um, he requires specific monitoring He is less predictable than our other team members.
ME: Why is that?
THEM: He's the only one that's still alive in the real world. This reality, yours and mine. We think that's why disconnecting weakened him so quickly. His mind draws its stability from his body. He's a volunteer, actually. It's been fascinating to watch his progress. He's shown remarkable resiliency.
ME: Why would anyone volunteer for something like this? He has to know he'll be permanently disconnected from his body -- especially after you complete the transfer and shut down the entire waiting room, island and all. Or are you just gonna erase him entirely? Did you try to make a back up?
THEM: Any further comment would illegally disclose confidential information.
ME: Oh, come on! I came all this way -- can I at least get a look at his body?
THEM: NO!
ME: Fine. Please continue.
THEM: Uh-----
ME: Access to the New World opened up and you were able to transfer Group A to some kind of exit room. What's the exit room?
THEM: We manifested an airplane in flight as the original waiting room. They were jerked out of it somehow, but kept and used the memory of it. ! They translated our original waiting room into their perceived "entry point," the explanation for why they were on the island. They believed they were all together on a plane that crashed there. Once we regained environmental control, we put them back in the plane as if they'd never crashed. We're quite proud of it, actually! They made a routine "landing" at an airport. LAX.
ME: LAX is the new waiting room.
Them: Yes. And completely under our control. We're using their "electronics," cell phones, computer monitors, etc. to keep better contact with them. Or control them if necessary.
ME: What about the residual memories? From the first waiting room - the island?
THEM: We eliminated them by creating the New World with an entirely new frequency and set up better firewalls.
ME: How can you do that without tampering with their base identities?
THEM: That's just it! Their core identities were already compromised. We've actually reset their personalities and memories to where they were originally (before the initial anomaly) by filtering them with the new frequency individually as they transfer one by one. To keep their minds intact we've regulated the information feed. They each start with a basic identity/personality, the one they originally shared with Group A. They will remember more of their individual "histories" as they connect with each other. In effect, they stabilize each other as they connect. Once the connections are established, they form a web. The interconnections as a whole stabilize their environments.
ME: The more they are integrated, the stronger their resistance to derivative malfunction.
THEM: And interference. We established "Live together, die alone" as a universal directive from the start as an incentive to come together and cooperate.
ME: So why am I here?
THEM: Our bi-frequency team member recently acquired memories from his experiences on the "island." That means our filter only suppressed them. We'd like to know if releasing memories of island experiences in the others will help or harm them. If we do the releasing in a controlled manner, it would protect them from psychological damage until they can generate a logical solution to the discrepancy.
ME: To do that I need detailed files on everyone, confidential or not.
THEM: Agreed.
ME: Anything else?
THEM: We need to know more about what’s happening. We sent a team in, they’ve been under the radar for a while now. We think our team leader just made contact with the — problem. Once he did that, we can’t get a clear read on what’s happening. He seems to be complying with his directive, but now we have a time issue. The waiting room — the island — might shut down too early, before we can complete the transfer. If that happens –
ME: Everyone trapped in the waiting room –
THEM: — And any tangential flashes –
ME: — they all die.
THEM: Yes.
ME: Oh my God. You set off an internal countdown for transfer. Didn't you.
THEM: Yes.
ME: AAAAGUUUHHHHGGGG! Why would you abandon control like that?!
THEM: Our prior attempts at input have been intercepted and caused serious harm. We sent the entire team in with an internal clock -- some are more aware of it than others. However, they all know -- the end -- is coming.
ME: How long?
THEM: 48 hours.
ME: All right. Give me everything you've got. And I mean EVERYTHING! Then take me back to the hotel. I need a drink. You'll know everything I know in the morning.
EPILOGUE
So now you know! I think "they" are shutting down the island, specifically to free all the peeps trapped there. In order to do that, they've created a "New World," the flash sideways (the good one). They plan to transfer everyone trapped by the island to the New World before it shuts down. Mock Locke is screwing with the plan for some reason (or maybe he's just part of the plan and doesn't know it). When he leaves, the island will shut down completely. If that happens before they can transfer everyone off, they'll all disappear/"cease to be"/die. Try not to fret about our losties though. If they die, they are not "dead." They will either wake up outside the system or end up in the New World. Cool, right?
This theory created by Amy/aohora for LOSTblog.com.
